The Good Wife (Lady of the Kuchiki)
by mous1elousi3
Summary: What does the wife of the Twenty-Eighth Head of the Kuchiki think of when she is with her noble husband? The Twenty-Ninth Head of the Kuchiki...or Matsumoto Rangiku gets herself talked into marriage and actually winds up falling for the man...


_**A/N: So this is smut with some measure of a plot. It is...explicit so, yeah, if you're not old enough for this crazy, awful stuff, just don't. Preserve your innocence. This is an expansion on an idea born in **_**Fragments**_** and an episode of **_**The ****White Queen**_**. It is long because I got carried away. Hard luck. Enjoy.**_

_**Disclaimer: Not mine, never was, never will be. Just borrowing some characters from Tite Kubo to fulfill my sick fantasies.**_

**"The Good Wife (Lady of the Kuchiki)"**

When Byakuya reached for her in the night, under the cover of the steady drumbeat of a torrential downpour, the first of summer, Rangiku stopped feigning sleep, opened her eyes and looked up into his. No one else in the household was awake at this hour. Rukia's and Ichigo's reiatsu signatures were steady and muted in their deep slumber in their respective rooms. Elsewhere, she could just sense the Elders, some of them weakening ever by the day, just as relaxed. The lord and lady's room was set deep in the manor too, far enough away that they would not disturb anyone, even without the veil of rainfall.

She refused to acknowledge the unsettled state of their other houseguest. If she had her way, Sakamoto Midori would not be there in the first place.

Though she knew very well what he wanted, she still asked, "What is it? What do you want?"

She could not see his expression in the dark but she could feel the ripple of irritation in his reiatsu before he replied, "You, my lady."

She took a deep breath, released it and then reached up with both arms and drew him closer. He kissed her on both cheeks first, then her forehead, then her nose which tickled and made her giggle, and then finally her mouth. She let him deepen the kiss almost immediately and wrapped her legs around his hips.

The sooner they got this over with the sooner she could go to sleep.

**0o0**

When they had first married a decade ago, neither had been deeply in love with each other. The proposal was made by an Elder on Byakuya's behalf without his knowledge, or so they claimed. They had seen him in her company, they said, and though they were also accompanied by others, they had learned that he had been making enquiries about her with his lieutenant and Captains Ukitake, Kyouraku and Hitsugaya. It was an expression of interest and since she was at least a lieutenant, it was one they were willing to consider. She had laughed in their faces at the time, at the idea that Byakuya had any interest in her. And then he had written her poetry on a whim and invited her to see him "compete" with it against friends. It was a rare honour, to be invited by Kuchiki Byakuya to spend time with him when he so rarely even looked at anyone else.

Despite the strangeness of the whole thing she had accepted and it was all over after that.

Their courtship and marriage ceremony were brief and somewhat awkward affairs in which Rangiku tried to convince herself that she was not making a serious mistake but Byakuya presented himself as keenly interested in the proceedings. It was then with great shock that she listened as he explained that this was a marriage of convenience, on their _wedding night_ while she stood before him in a thin, near-see-through shift and their marriage bed adorned in flower petals. His family wanted an heir and though she had some "disagreeable qualities" he had found that she was intelligent, pleasant company, someone who understood what his duties meant to him and at the very least, got along well with Rukia. Did he love her? Well, no, and she did not really love him either but that was beside the point, at the very least she would benefit from becoming Lady Kuchiki.

She had slapped him, furious, and thrown him out of the bridal chamber. And then for most of their month-long honeymoon after, at a remote Kuchiki estate in another part of the Seireitei they had slept in separate rooms. She spent much of that time too, drinking and cursing his name, but mostly angry at herself for falling for what amounted to an elaborate ruse to cement her acquiescence to his family's indecent proposal. Well, he had chosen the wrong woman if he thought she would have just gone along with it quietly.

She should have just left him, she knew. From the moment she first found out the truth, she should have packed her bags and taken up Nanao's offer to hide out with her in the Rukongai for a month or two. But also during that month, Byakuya was every inch the considerate, attentive husband. He respected her refusal to let him touch her, but then he insisted that they share their meals, take walks together around the estate and tour other holdings the Kuchiki had in the Seireitei and Rukongai. He made arrangements for them to participate in different activities, like when he practiced his calligraphy or archery, or she played the koto or shamisen, and then dismissed the servants so that they were forced to depend on each other.

On some level she knew that this was primarily about presenting an image to the world of them as a happy, newlywed couple deeply in love and exploring what their new life had to offer. But the longer she stayed the harder it was to walk away from him. For all that she knew that she was probably digging her own grave, the effort that he was making had to count for something, had to _mean_ something.

**0o0**

His kisses always felt like a caress against her skin, warm and wet and greedy. Of late he had developed a need to mark her flesh, though usually somewhere out of sight like on her shoulder or hip or thigh. As his mouth closed around a nipple, she gasped, hands going into his hair, pressing his head down and arched her spine until her stomach pressed his chest. He had one hand on her back and another working its way firmly up between her thighs under the cover of her robe. The rainfall masked her cry when he pinched her there and teased her with a finger.

She squeezed her thighs around his hand, moaning, and he released her breast to trail a line of hot kisses down her stomach. He pressed her back down onto the bed and forced her legs apart, before grasping her by the hips and lifting her so that he could replace his fingers with his mouth. Another gasp and then she bit her lip, forcing herself to be quiet for surely they could still be heard by someone, and then covered her hands with her face and turned her head away.

He was going to mark her again, she knew it from the pressure of his hands on her hips and the way he nipped at the skin of her inner thigh. She could not fathom why though. If anyone had anything to fear of unfaithfulness, it was her. The family had made it quite clear that they were now prepared to declare her barren and get him a new wife for really, what were they thinking, the last wife had come from the Rukongai and she had died childless.

Rangiku would never tell them it was not exactly her fault that she was not pregnant.

**0o0**

When they returned to Kuchiki Manor and the welcome party their friends held for them, she had no trouble pretending to be the besotted new wife. She kissed him as if she always did and held his hand, and later that night in their shared bedroom (for of course no one was any the wiser at the true state of things,) let him consummate their marriage.

It was, in a word, difficult. She was no shy virgin and he had certainly not been celibate since his first wife's death but she shrank away from his touch and he seemed unsure of how to proceed with her. Eventually, in frustration, she had lain back, turned her head away and told him to pretend that she was someone else, _anyone_ else.

He had refused, appalled at the idea that she would let him use her like that and even more so that she would think that would work for him. She insisted, determined that at the very least that if they got this out of the way everything else would be easier, for the rest of her life was going to be long and unhappy otherwise. He reluctantly relented, and had treated her so very _gently_, whispering in her ear all the while that the only thing he would pretend was that he was deeply in love with her, that she was the light of his soul and a gift of heaven come to save his family. She had cried the whole time and spent much of it hoping that she would conceive immediately and they would not have to do any of this again.

Too bad he had pulled out at the last minute and refused to discuss it after.

The next morning at breakfast, with the others, she had sat in silent confusion even while the Elders beamed hopeful smiles at her and encouraged her to drink fortifying teas, get plenty of rest and presented fortune teller predictions on how soon it would be before they made a happy announcement to the Seireitei. Even Rukia had gotten in on the act, suggesting names and daydreaming wistfully about what it would be like to become an aunt. Through it all, Byakuya said nothing and then quietly left for work without so much as a backward glance. At the time no one understood why she had not playfully, cheerfully teased him for it, protesting his neglect, but they would soon.

It took Rukia less than a week to realise that her brother's neglect of his new wife that morning was not a onetime thing, an accident forged by more than fifty years of solitude, but an a conscious decision not to play nice with her now that they would be alone again. Confused, she had hurried to confront Rangiku about it under the guise of having lunch with her new sister-in-law. Rangiku agreed to eat with her but gave up nothing. She had no idea what Byakuya was up to either.

The only person she told the truth, the whole truth, was Nanao and she had reacted with horror.

"Why didn't you end it the moment you found out the truth? You are so much better than this, Rangiku," she said, glaring at her friend.

Rangiku, seated across from her looking out the window at the bustling First Division training yard, replied, "I can't exactly blame him. He was not lying before when he said that this was not a love match…I behaved just like those girls who had thrown themselves at him for years hoping for the honour of becoming 'Lady Kuchiki'. They have no idea what they were asking for..."

Nanao grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look at her as she replied, "You are _nothing_ like those girls. He_ tricked_ you. The good thing is you're not pregnant so you can still just walk away. You don't have to care about what people think. You never have before."

Rangiku pulled her chin out of her friend's reach and replied, "I don't care what people think. I'm actually kind of glad that things are the way they are because this was not about love in the first place. I just…I don't understand what he's doing. Wasn't this the whole point of us getting married?"

Nanao stared at her for a time before sighing and said, "Don't let...don't let this man hurt you too. Whatever reason he has…make sure that he tells you before it gets too late."

In the weeks and months that followed, she and Byakuya would sleep together multiple times but each time it ended the same way. But things did improve, somewhat, for their couplings lost the awkwardness as he persisted in whispering praises in her ear and even encouraged her when she approached him. His passion was…_surprising_ to say the least.

After that first night, the second time he approached her, she had been asleep and he awakened her with a kiss and his hands in her sleeping yukata. The next she had been in the bath, and then he had cornered her after a captain's meeting, and another time while the Elders awaited them for a family meeting. She found herself more than a little agitated, wary, watching out for where he might suddenly appear from before snatching her away. It was also rather exciting, as if they were lovestruck teenagers, high on raging hormones and the thrill of doing something so forbidden and grown-up and wonderful that it was hard to quit. He took care too, that she enjoyed herself, leaving her weak-kneed and breathless, dishevelled but happy, though always in the end, more than a little confused. Did he not want her to have his child after all?

But their newfound affection followed them out of the bedroom as well. In time, he would flirt with her at breakfast or dinner, and sometimes, on the rare occasions that they both had time, at lunch. He would take her out for walks or visits to the theatre or social events with others in the nobility and spent most of that time always a few feet away, ready to whisk her away to make out in the gardens. He even surprised her with gifts, filling her office with flowers, (much to Captain Hitsugaya's annoyance) presenting her with a new set of kimonos once a month and, for her birthday, took her back out to their honeymoon house for the weekend. It was as if they had reset the clock, as if he had decided to start over by winning her affections and it was working, goodness it was _working_.

**0o0**

She rode the waves of climax in the palm of his hand, her hands wrapped around his neck, her legs at his waist and his mouth at her throat. She had buried her scream in his shoulder, biting down on his flesh knowing that it would leave a very visible bruise. If he noticed, he ignored it to claim her mouth with his own; even as she let her hands wander down between them to grasp hold of him. Nothing rotten about this wood, he was all solid oak. He slipped his hands into her sweat-drenched hair, massaging her scalp. She broke the kiss to refocus on his neck again even as she rolled her hips just so that he could feel her, warm and wet against the length of him. He gasped a little and she giggled, which turned into a surprised shriek a moment later as he grasped her by the shoulders and flipped her down unto her stomach on the bed.

Ah, so he was in one of _those_ moods. She made a show of trying to crawl away from him, but he grabbed by the hips and brought her back and down and oh, she could barely breathe for the feel of him around her, behind her, inside of her… She rolled her hips again and he let her, covering her hands with his own on the futon and interlocking their fingers. In a matter of minutes, he had her panting for breath, moaning and grunting and gasping, soaked in the sweat, and revelling in the sweet burn of the friction of their bare skin rubbing against each other. All she could do was hold on as her noble husband "ploughed her fields", to quote that one Elder, and while it was not the first time he had been so…indelicate, something about it felt…different. Then he shifted his hips just so and she stopped thinking, twisting her head to kiss him, pulling her hands free of his to slip them to the back of his head and draw him closer. He grasped her by the waist and lifted them upright so that she was sitting his lap and then slid his hands down to where they were connected and worked a finger inbetween, swallowing her moans as they formed on her tongue.

In addition to the marks on her skin then, it was clear that he was also trying to alter the way she was going to walk for the next few days. Would not be the first time, and he had actually smiled, _visibly smiled_ in a _public place_ back then at the sight of her. She had scowled and cursed him and then let him do it again a few weeks later. It was not as if she had anything to complain about. There were women in the Seireitei who would kill for a partner so dedicated and many of those women had once been her "competition".

**0o0**

On the one year anniversary of their marriage she finally had enough.

There was a party and she had been drinking and though he had not commented on it before, this time he stepped in and dragged her off to their bedroom. It might also have had something to do with the fact that Hisagi Shuuhei had begun flirting with her. He was not the only man who had, all of who were very aware of her husband just behind her the entire time. It was just that everyone knew that Hisagi Shuuhei had been in love with her for years and had been more upset about her marriage than most of Byakuya's suitors combined. As soon as the door had shut behind them, he had pushed her off to the bed and said, "Stay here and cool off, you are finished for the evening. Have you forgotten that you are my wife? How could you allow yourself to get into this state? You are lady of a noble house now and you will behave as such!"

Enraged, and a little drunk, she snapped, "What the_ hell_ is your problem? I know exactly who I am and I am not drunk! What does it matter anyway, I'm not pregnant!"

He said nothing, just stood watching her with that cool, impassive gaze that made her blood hot with fury and desire at the same time. To cover both, she dropped her gaze from his face and snarled, "I have been _nothing_ but a _good_ wife to you! I didn't take off and embarrass you when I could have, didn't I?"

Byakuya advanced on her then, all pretence of calm gone, and hissed, reiatsu and nostrils flaring, "A _good_ wife? A good wife would not flirt with strange men in front of her husband and his family on the first anniversary of their marriage! I understand that you are not happy with this situation but at the very least you could _pretend_! Haven't I done everything to make this at least pleasant for you?"

Rangiku went wide-eyed at this, and especially when he seemed to lose a little control over his reiatsu so that it pressed against hers, but seized upon one point, snapping at him, "Pleasant? What kind of husband treats his wife like some kind of alley whore?"

His mouth clamped shut, his eyes widened slightly and for a moment he just stared at her. Then he blinked, took a slow, deep breath and asked, his voice a low, dangerous whisper, _"What did you just say?"_

She turned her back on him, anger deflating like a balloon and said, "I did not say anything before because I thought that it was just…well I don't know what I thought but I believed that it would end after a while. But it's been a year and nothing has changed. Isn't the point of us being married that I'm supposed to get pregnant? I don't know if they explained it to you, but _that_ is not how babies are made."

He began to protest, "I know how chil—"

"Is this about Hisana?" she asked, cutting him off, swinging round again to look at him.

He said nothing, his expression blanking into the usual one of cold indifference he carried when out in public. But they had been married for a year, she knew enough of his manner to not be afraid. This was not the face to fear unless the danger lay in a broken heart. She dropped her gaze from his face and said, "I know...I know that I am not the woman you imagined having children with...I understand that much, but we had a deal and when you..." She trailed off embarrassed, unable to finish.

There was silence for a time, and then he grabbed her by the arms and brought her closer to him. She kept her eyes averted. She refused to look at him as he confirmed what she had come to believe, that despite all of this that no, he could not bring himself to conceive a child with her because it would be a betrayal of a long-lost beloved. Instead, he enveloped her in his arms, pressing her against him as he placed a soft kiss along her forehead and asked, "For now, is this not enough? Despite what my family thinks, there is no need to rush… Can we not simply be together?"

Her blood heated again and she struggled in his arms and pushed against him until he was forced to let her go, and then she snapped, "This is not about your family!" He said nothing, waited, and she continued, "If you do not want us to have a child yet, then you could have _told_ me. When you just…do _that_, it feels _weird_. There are ways to…stop a pregnancy from happening without making me feel like…like a pretty mistress you're hiding."

This time she looked him in the eyes and held his gaze until finally, he looked away first. But then he reached for her again and she let him take her hands. Looking her directly in the eyes, he pressed both hands to his lips once, twice before replying, "I am sorry, my Lady Kuchiki. I did not mean to offend."

Feeling suddenly shy, she dropped her gaze this time and said, "Just…please…don't do it again."

He did not. That night when he claimed her she had felt his release with her legs pressing him firmly, deeply into her. It was...a surreal moment. She had never felt closer to him until then, not entirely as if he was hers until he acquiesced to her wishes. As he relaxed in her arms, still tracing butterfly kisses along her collarbone she believed it, the scent of their lovemaking in the air and their bodily fluids mixing between them, that he was hers now as much as she had become his. She did not even know that she had been waiting for this moment but now that she had it, she wanted to make sure that there were many more moments like this to come.

The next day she had gone to Captain Unohana with a request. The Fourth Division captain had not even batted an eyelid, but simply directed her to the appropriate medicines and sent her on her way.

That was nine years ago. During that time she and Byakuya had gone through the usual trials and tribulations of a married couple with demanding careers. They fell out for not seeing enough of each other, or over silly things like whether or not to wear matching outfits to a party, or Rukia and her "worryingly close" (to quote Byakuya) relationship with Kurosaki Ichigo. Making up after those fights was always good fun. They also went to great lengths to spend events like their birthdays and anniversaries together. They went out on separate missions in which neither really slept until the other returned. They discovered shared interests, like traditional Japanese dancing and theatre, and tried their hands at each other's hobbies. Byakuya really did not like drinking in pubs and Rangiku was absolutely terrible at calligraphy. They took turns watching over each other when they got ill and then annoying the hell out of each other for the hell of it, and again, making up after was worth it.

Rangiku liked to think that it was actually a great idea that Byakuya had decided that they should wait for a child because it gave them time to get to know each other first and well, fall in love.

**0o0**

A change in position in the dark and he was flat on his back while she sat upright and, hands joined with his, searching for his gaze in the dark, they rocked together. It never lasted though, for after the first few movements he would sit up to kiss her and bring her down to him. Then he would roll her unto her back, nuzzle his face in her hair while she scoured his back with her nails and panted for breath in time with his thrusts until he climaxed and fell heavily atop of her. Or at least, that is how it usually went on a normal night.

Tonight he grabbed her by the thighs, forcing himself deeper with her movements. She gyrated over him, braced with one hand on his chest and the other on his knee, trying to keep her voice down. She could feel the rising thrill low in her belly that slowly but surely, for the second time that night brought her to a high that she released as his name, a cry just over the roar of the downpour, _"Byakuya!"_

This time he joined her, and she felt his release spilling warm and hot into her belly and then out along her thighs, mixing with hers and dripping unto the bed-sheets below. No one ever said that sex was clean.

She came down slowly, collapsing unto his chest and this time he rolled her onto her back. She could barely move, feeling completely boneless, but he was hardly done with her. He turned his attention to her breasts, working the nipples sore until she pulled his head away, wincing. He grunted at this, grabbed her hands and pinned them down over her head with one hand while using the other to massage a breast even as his mouth enclosed it again.

She had to reconsider her earlier assessment again. Forget walking, the next day she was going to be unable to get out of bed. Her captain was going to be furious, but she was somebody's wife now and if her husband wanted her to stay home, then she was going to. Of course, that did not mean that she was going to let him out of bed either.

She grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him upright, sitting up as well. She was tired but not exhausted and so she kissed him again. But when he made to press her back down, she pushed back so that he went instead. Then she climbed over him between his legs and began to trail a series of hot, wet kisses along his jaw, neck and down his chest and stomach. He laughed when made a circle of his navel with her tongue but hissed, tense, when she took him in her mouth and sucked at him until he was hard again.

**0o0**

One day in spring earlier that year, the same Elder who had visited her to propose the marriage, requested an audience. Byakuya was off on a mission for the past two weeks without so much as a hell butterfly. It annoyed her a little, that he thought that was okay, but she decided that she would deal with that first…well, _second_ thing after he got back.

She greeted the crone in the gardens while overseeing the planting of the new flowerbeds for spring.

"My lady, Rangiku-sama," said the Elder, her voice barely above her whisper.

Long used to the Kuchiki tendency to speak in a low voice and expect others to hear them anyway, Rangiku replied without looking, "Oba-san."

The Elder walked over to stand with her at the edge of the porch, her maids standing just a little way off. The Elder kept the two middle-aged women with her at all times, supposedly to help with her infirmity but Rangiku knew this particular Elder to be as strong as an ox. It was some time yet before the crone would become infirm. Rather those maids were spies meant to report on the progress of the young lord and lady's efforts at conceiving the Twenty-Ninth. The thought of them spying as she and Byakuya made love always made Rangiku's skin crawl.

"Ah, what beautiful flowers! Lord Byakuya will be greatly pleased at your selection. They will bloom so prettily," said the Elder, looking over the gardeners working their way through the landscaper's carefully arranged flowerbeds.

"I know. I was thinking that we could have breakfast here until the fall," said Rangiku, gesturing to the room just behind her. "The other room is so stuffy and boring; I just could not stand it anymore."

The Elder stepped down from the porch and walked out a little way into the garden and said, "The Kuchiki have a reputation for keeping beautiful gardens, blossoming even in times of drought and illness…though sometimes one wonders how often one can sow a field before giving it up at a last cause."

She turned back to give Rangiku a pointed look at her still flat stomach. Rangiku bristled immediately. Having no patience for their subterfuge, she said, "We had this discussion before. Byakuya and I are not ready for a child yet."

The Elder shrugged and said, "That decision has never been up to you two. There must be a Twenty-Ninth. We approached you on that understanding. That was ten years ago and in that time while there have been…hopeful periods, I have yet to behold the face of my future clan head. I would like to see that face before I die."

Rangiku sighed. "Hopeful periods" this Elder had called them, more like "scares" where for days Rangiku had waited anxiously for her bleeding to begin or Isane's tests to come back negative. Byakuya had expressed neither joy nor disappointment at these developments, though on the last occasion two years before, he had sat with her for more than half an hour after she returned from the Fourth, silent and distant. That time she _had _been hoping and her disappointment had made the mood around the house rather gloomy for the next two weeks.

To the Elder she said, "Yes, well, not right now."

The Elder turned to her then and said, "I hope you have not forgotten that the only reason you are currently Lady of this clan is because we let you. You are not irreplaceable."

Rangiku stared at her, eyes narrowed, "Is that a threat?"

"It's a warning. If you are not with child within the next year we will be forced to take action," said the Elder.

Of course, Rangiku had completely ignored them. When Byakuya returned she did not mention it, though she detailed at length what she would do to him the next time he went off on a long mission and did not report home as frequently as possible. After ten years of marriage, barely a single year in the lifetime of a shinigami but nevertheless long enough for them to be used to each other, she thought that he should have known better.

In hindsight, perhaps, it had been a tactical error to dismiss the Elder's warning. The next month, Sakamoto Midori, brown-haired and bright-eyed, still carrying her baby fat came to "visit" and wasted no time in putting herself in Byakuya's path. She was everywhere he was whenever he was home. In the training grounds as he practiced with his zanpakuto or archery, in the room where he practiced his calligraphy and most annoying of all, that evening after dinner they had spent an hour composing haiku together. As lady of the house, Rangiku had to present herself as unconcerned with the amateur efforts of an overly-ambitious child, no matter now it made her blood hot and fury cold. When finally she and Byakuya had gone off to bed, she climbed in without saying a word and pretended to be asleep.

In the ten years they had been together she never had the slightest reason, not even a whisper of rumour or hint of innuendo that Byakuya might consider an affair. So yes, he had informed her of the oirans with who he had consorted in the fifty years between his first wife's death and his marriage to her but whoring was not a hobby of his. She had even met one of the women before, a dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty named Benihime who had cheekily demanded that Rangiku send her an offering of gratitude for all the things she had taught Byakuya. And yes, this was nothing like the heady, intoxicating first love of either of their lives, but they had made a vow and Rangiku would hold him to his word until her dying day that there would be no other.

Of course, a number of his acquaintances in the nobility kept mistresses alongside living wives and even introduced Renji and Ichigo to a few until, at least in the case of the latter, Rukia had threatened to publicly shame them for attempting to corrupt him. But no, Byakuya was not like them. When he made a vow he kept it…well, _most_ of the time and everything she saw of him suggested that he loved deeply, passionately and selfishly. After the anniversary incident, it had become an unwritten and unspoken rule around the Seireitei that any other man that dared to flirt with her, no matter how friendly or receptive she seemed a the time would have to answer to her husband. Her very displeased, very powerful, and very dangerous husband.

But still…

Sakamoto Midori was also naïve. She had come into the household, with her noble bloodline and bearing and taken one look at Lady Kuchiki Rangiku, a former Rukongai denizen who had worked her way up through the ranks of the Gotei Thirteen (on her own power and not her beauty,) even after a terrible assault in her childhood, and the apparent abandonment of a childhood friend who would save her from starvation and then leave her again anyway to a cause he told no one else was in her name and thought, I could take her. But Rangiku was no fool and hardly a pushover.

For all that Midori envisioned herself, with some prompting, as the future wife of the lord of the clan she had no idea how to engage him without help. There was always some servant of an Elder waiting nearby whenever Rangiku came across the girl with her husband. They suggested topics of conversation, encouraged her to approach him for assistance on the silliest little things and tried to set up private meetings. Rangiku was way ahead of her, and revelled in watching the girl blush as the lady of the house casually joked about her active sex life with her husband. She liked to unsettle the girl. She would run interference when she could by posting her off on inane errands with younger Kuchiki cousins, or taking her along when she went visiting with other nobility while her husband rested from work at home, or even, on one memorable occasion sending the girl on a wild goose chase to procure some nonexistent spice that Byakuya loved in his food. To a certain extent, she knew that it was silly, but if the girl wanted to replace her she would have to earn it.

To his credit, Byakuya never appeared to show anything but mild indifference and on one occasion, while he was trying to line up the target for archery, outright irritation at the girl's presence. He clearly knew why she was there but he said nothing to discourage her or the Elders and that was what made Rangiku angry.

She confronted him about it one night as they lay in bed, saying, "You could send her back to her family."

His voice was heavy, low, slurring slightly in his sleepiness as he replied, "Who?"

"Sakamoto Midori. There is no reason for her to remain here when she's just getting in everyone's way," said Rangiku.

He sighed and said, "Tell me that a lieutenant of the Gotei Thirteen, Lady of the Kuchiki, my wife of _ten years_, is not threatened by a little girl no older than my sister?"

Rangiku rolled her eyes and then propping herself up on her elbows to look down at his sleepy face, said, "I am not 'threatened'. I am merely concerned that your relatives brought her here to break us up. They are actively trying to _end_ our marriage."

"Yes," he said, yawned, and then continued, "and unsurprising, considering that they are the ones who brought us together in the first place and we have yet to fulfil the purpose of the arrangement. However, sending away Sakamoto-san will do nothing to stop them when they can simply procure another. I understand that in some circles I am still considered 'eligible'."

"I don't want her here," said Rangiku, scowling at him.

"Ignore her or continue to toy with her, whichever" he said with a sigh. "Now go to sleep so I can."

She exhaled heavily, annoyed, and lay back to go to sleep. She would just have to talk to Nanao.

Disappointingly, Nanao's advice was more of the same. "Ignore the girl, you are his wife, trust him not to betray you," she said, glaring at Rangiku. "You _do_ trust him, right? I mean, it's been long enough that you should know whether you can or not."

Rangiku had insisted that she trusted him, it was just that she did not trust the girl or his relatives. Surely there was then something else she could do? Throwing out the girl herself would cause embarrassment as everyone would take it as a sign of weakness, and that could not be allowed with the Elders circling like sharks that thought they had scented blood in the water.

Ignore the girl, Nanao had repeated.

It was ironic really. Ten years ago she would not have cared, she would actually have been expecting it and probably would have used it as an excuse to end the marriage and leave with some measure of dignity. But that was then. Now, she would fight tooth and nail for this marriage and this man and there was no way in Hell, Hueco Mundo or Soul Society she was going to let some silly little girl get what was hers.

**0o0**

She could feel his climax coming in the tensing of the muscles along his inner thighs and hips, taste it on her tongue as she traced a circle around the tip and braced herself for the release. Instead, he pulled back, slipping free of her mouth with a trail of saliva and drawing her head up for a kiss while he parted her legs and slipped up into her body with a happy squelch. Then he laid her back down on the bed and began rolling their hips together, slow but hard, forcing himself in as deep as he could go before drawing out and doing it again.

She grasped his shoulders and gasped with each thrust into her, wrapping her legs around his hips, toes curling, squeezing down on him with her thighs. She never wanted him to stop, sore as she was already, sore as she was going to be when she woke the later. But that reminded her of something and so she whispered into his ear, "I...I have to...to go to work at sunrise."

He nipped at her ear and replied, "Stop talking."

Rangiku could not. She said, "I have du...ties as a lieutenant that you're going to make me...neglect."

"I don't care," he replied, then put her hands up above her head again and held them there with one hand while lifting one of her legs up with an arm under a knee, all the while keeping the steady, almost lazy rhythm of their lovemaking.

She gasped and started panting again, the sensation of pain and pleasure mixing to force coherent thought out of her head. She arched her back to press herself closer to him and he slowed the pace even further until it was pure, sweet agony. Still she managed, "What are you trying to do?" A gasp. "I need to…ah, oh…"

A moan and he kissed her and said, "What do you think our child will look like?"

It took a moment but his question eventually broke through the white haze that was slowly filling her head and she asked, "What?"

He kissed her again, picking up the pace a little and forcing moans and happy exclamations from her mouth before replying, "Our child. Do you want a boy or a girl?"

Rangiku was in the throes of ecstasy and barely heard him. For a time too she could not speak, too busy hoping that she would climax before him and also that he would shut up and keep doing what he was but a little faster. And she did come before him, just moments and when he collapsed on top of her, she wiped his long, wet hair from his forehead and kissed him. Then she said, as if they had never stopped talking, "So you want us to have a child now? What prompted this?"

He lay with his head on her chest, though with his arms keeping his weight off and replied, "It's been long enough, don't you think?"

Not really, but Rangiku did not really care at the moment. Then he added, "You could be pregnant right now, since I changed your medicine to vitamins last month."

Now that made her start. She tried to sit up, stunned, but he refused to move to let her go and she said, "Hey, wait, Byakuya, what did you just say? You cannot go around doing something like that without telling me. For goodness sake, if I am, what if something had happened to me? Don't you think that was something that we should have discussed together?"

"Yes," said Byakuya, shrugging, then laughing, said, "That was a joke though. I could have...since you were too busy trying to pick a fight with a little girl to notice. Did you honestly think, after all this time, that I have any interest in anyone else?"

She did not, but she said, "It did not take much to convince you to marry me. But a baby?"

He rolled onto his back beside her and said, "Was this not the purpose of our marriage?"

She turned her head towards him and replied, "Well…yes."

"Then it is time that we fulfilled this contract," he said, and then after a pause, "I am not unaware of the family's…frustration and I have no interest in letting them take this out on you." Here he lifted a hand to cup her face and said, "You have done nothing deserving of such a thing. Especially since you put up with me for ten years when you could have fled from our wedding night."

She smiled at him and lifted a hand to his jaw. He bent his head a little to kiss her fingers and said, "Besides, I want to see our child."

She smiled wider and flicked at his jaw before replying, "That was not funny. And since when do you just get to decide that it is time? What if I am still not ready? Don't I get a choice?"

He took hold of the hand at his jaw, kissed it and then said with a smile she felt against her fingers, "Yes, I am sorry, my lady. I promise I will inform you way ahead of time when I decide that we should have our third child."

She pulled her hand out of his grasp and hit him a playful slap and said, "The agreement was _one _and when _I _decide that we should have a second child, I will inform you. You think you're being cute right now, but since you just made me very happy I am willing to forgive you."

"My lady," he said. "You are as merciful as you are beautiful. Perhaps we can settle this little disagreement with trying for twins?"

**0o0**

Three weeks later, Sakamoto Midori abruptly ended her visit with the Kuchiki, coinciding with the day that an announcement appeared in the society pages of the _Seireitei Communications Monthly_: **"Lady Kuchiki Rangiku Expecting! Kuchiki Byakuya Actually Seen Smiling!"**

_Fin._


End file.
